Both are free and open source, but they are different kinds of software. LibreOffice is an established office suite, based on OpenOffice.org, with Writer for documents alongside spreadsheets, presentations and more, in 120 languages. WordCraft is a new word processor in alpha that copies Microsoft Word’s ribbon and shortcuts and treats .docx as its main format. If you need a complete, mature free office suite, that’s LibreOffice. WordCraft is for people who want Word’s way of working and can live with alpha software.
This page compares them from each project’s own documentation. We haven’t run our own tests. Facts are as of WordCraft 0.7.0 and LibreOffice 26.8, checked on 16 October 2026.
At a glance
| WordCraft 0.7.0 | LibreOffice 26.8 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Licence | MIT or Apache-2.0 | Mozilla Public License 2.0 |
| What you get | A word processor | A suite: Writer (documents), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw, Base (databases) and Math (formulas) |
| Interface | Word’s ribbon, tabs and shortcuts | Its own menus and toolbars, with several layouts to choose from, including a tabbed one similar to Office’s ribbon |
| Main file format | .docx | OpenDocument (.odt) |
| Official builds | Windows (64-bit, ARM and 32-bit), macOS, Linux (x86_64, ARM64, RISC-V), FreeBSD, and a web version to host yourself | Windows (64-bit and ARM), macOS (Apple silicon and Intel), Linux (x86_64 and ARM64) |
| Interface languages | 18 | 120 |
| Spelling and grammar | English. Polish, Portuguese, Italian and Croatian need a dictionary installed on the system. | Many languages |
| Macros | Records and replays its own commands. Doesn’t run VBA. | Macros in LibreOffice Basic, plus extensions |
| Automation | wordcraft-cli for converting documents, and an MCP server for AI agents |
Command-line conversion (--headless --convert-to) and a programming interface for external programs |
| AI | No built-in assistant. AI agents can drive it through the MCP server. | “LibreOffice 26.8 contains no generative AI features.” |
| Network | Everything works offline | “No component of the suite requires network access to function.” |
| Maturity | Alpha. First release on 7 October 2026. | Long-established. Its foundation points large organisations to enterprise versions with paid support from companies in the LibreOffice ecosystem. |
The interface: Word’s or LibreOffice’s
This is the biggest practical difference. WordCraft reproduces Word’s ribbon, the live Styles gallery and Word’s shortcuts. Enter continues a list, F4 repeats the last action and F8 extends the selection, just as in Word. Its developers measure it against Word for Mac and say it has commands for 88% of the features on Word’s ribbon.
LibreOffice Writer has its own commands and dialogs. Under View › User Interface you can pick a layout. The Tabbed layout groups functions into tabs, which LibreOffice’s help describes as similar to Microsoft Office’s ribbon. The commands behind them are still LibreOffice’s own, so habits from Word don’t always carry over.
Word documents
- .docx. WordCraft is built around .docx and saves it directly. LibreOffice’s own format is OpenDocument, and it opens and saves .docx as one of many formats. Neither lays out pages with Word’s engine, so line and page breaks can differ from Word in both. WordCraft’s developers list this as a known gap and say they haven’t yet tested a large set of real-world .docx files.
- .doc. LibreOffice saves old Word .doc files. WordCraft opens them but can’t save them.
- .odt. WordCraft opens and saves .odt too, but its developers note that notes, comments, revisions, sections and right-to-left text in ODT and RTF files aren’t fully handled yet. For OpenDocument files, LibreOffice is the reference.
- Charts. WordCraft draws charts from Word and keeps them when you save, but you can only edit charts made in WordCraft. LibreOffice 26.8 notes that some newer Office chart types (such as waterfall and treemap charts) “cannot yet be rendered or edited”, but survive a round trip.
What LibreOffice has that WordCraft doesn’t
- Spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, databases and a formula editor in the same package.
- 120 interface languages and spelling dictionaries for many languages. WordCraft checks only the five languages in the table and doesn’t check Chinese.
- Saving to .doc, macros in LibreOffice Basic, and extensions.
- Years of releases, and enterprise versions with paid support from companies in the LibreOffice ecosystem.
What WordCraft offers that LibreOffice doesn’t
- Word’s ribbon, gallery and shortcuts, for people who don’t want to relearn where things are.
- An MCP server that lets AI agents such as Claude write and edit documents, with options that keep the agent to the folders you choose.
- Official builds for 32-bit Windows, RISC-V Linux and FreeBSD, plus a web version you can host on your own server.
- A native interface drawn on the GPU. Its developers report that typing in a 188-page document re-lays it out in about 1.4 ms.
Which to choose
- Choose LibreOffice if you need a complete office suite, work in languages other than English, open .doc files and need to save them as .doc again, or need software that has been in use for years.
- Try WordCraft if you mainly write documents, want Word’s interface and .docx as the default, or want to let an AI agent work on your documents, and you’re comfortable keeping backups of alpha software.
Both are free, so you can install both. Try WordCraft on copies of your documents first. The download guides explain how to install it.
Sources
- WordCraft: the README and docs/gaps.md at version 0.7.0; the proofing languages in the 0.7.0 source code; the list of releases.
- LibreOffice: What is LibreOffice, the download page, the LibreOffice 26.8 announcement, The Document Foundation, and LibreOffice Help on user interface layouts, Basic macros and command-line parameters, checked on 16 October 2026.